1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus having a recording head and an ink tank mounted on a carriage thereof and arranged to move the carriage and supply an image signal to the recording head to discharge ink so as to record characters and/or images on a recording medium.
2. Related Background Art
In a computer, a word processor, a facsimile machine, a copying machine, a printer and the like, an ink jet recording apparatus has been widely used as means for recording information on a recording medium, such as paper, because noise generation can be prevented, data can be recorded at high speed and color images can easily be recorded.
The ink jet recording apparatus has a structure including a recording head disposed to oppose a recording medium so that heat energy or the like is used to discharge ink. The ink jet recording apparatus has been accommodated in an individual case or integrally included in the case of an electronic apparatus structured to produce information to be recorded and transmit the information as exemplified by a word processor, a personal computer or a facsimile apparatus which receives information from outside.
An ink jet recording apparatus for performing a color recording operation includes a recording head to be communicated with an ink tank or a recording head formed integrally with an ink tank. There have been widely used ink jet recording apparatuses of a type provided with a restoring apparatus arranged to be in contact with the recording head to absorb ink so as to restore the function of the recording head in order to maintain the quality of characters to be printed.
The conventional ink jet recording apparatus prints color images or the like by using a color recording head including inks in four colors and prints monochrome characters, such as text data, by using a monochrome recording head. That is, the recording heads and ink tanks have been changed to be adaptable to the contents to be printed.
Under the existing conditions, a restoring operation has been automatically performed regardless of the type of the recording head when the recording head has been changed.
However, the conventional structure always and automatically performs the restoring operation whenever change from the color recording head to the monochrome recording head or that from the monochrome recording head to the color recording head is performed. Therefore, if the recording head has been changed frequently, the restoring operation is performed whenever the recording head is changed. As a result, ink is wasted excessively, thus causing ink to be consumed undesirably. In particular, since a portable recording apparatus must attain desired portability, the size of the recording head and that of the ink tank must be reduced as well as the size of the ink jet recording apparatus. Moreover, ink in the ink tank must be restored efficiently when the recording head is changed.
Hitherto, the conventional apparatus usually includes an instruction means for controlling the recording apparatus to be capable of changing the recording head and to instruct the change of the recording head. The state where the change is enabled is exemplified by movement of the carrier for conveying the recording head to a position, at which the recording head can be changed. The instruction means sometimes consists of one or two keys and a variety of change modes are instructed by changing the combination of keys to be depressed or number of depressing operations.
A recording apparatus of the type having the various change modes suffers from a problem in that the change mode cannot accurately be instructed, for example, in a case where the recording head, which is being used, is changed to a new type recording head or a new type recording substance supply means. In the foregoing case, there arise problems in that the quantity of the contained recording substances in the newly mounted recording head or the recording substance supply means or a discharge restoring process, to be performed prior to performing the recording operation, is inaccurate, and that an unnecessary process is performed.
When the instruction means for instructing the change instructs to perform the control operation to enable the recording apparatus to be changed, another problem arises in that the change mode cannot be instructed and, therefore, the recording apparatus, the recording head of which has been changed, cannot be controlled accurately.
If the instruction means for instructing the change consists of one or two keys, a problem arises in that the operation becomes too complicated. What is worse, the complicated operation causes an erroneous instruction to be performed.